Rust fungus was released in summer 2024 in Hertfordshire by Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust and in West Yorkshire.<\/p>\n
Additional Defra funding has also seen a “successful” release at Wheldrake Ings nature reserve near York, the trust said. <\/p>\n
The National Trust, which runs Hardcastle Crags, Hebden Bridge, said it was “delighted” that rust fungus was “thriving” there.<\/p>\n
Rosie Holdsworth, National Trust countryside manager, said early results had been “very encouraging”.<\/p>\n
“We’re excited to monitor how the fungus continues to suppress balsam growth in the coming seasons,” she said.<\/p>\n
Elliot Baxendale, YWT project officer, said the charity had spent around 700 hours across two months in 2025 manually removing it.<\/p>\n
“We spend a lot of time managing Himalayan balsam infestations both on and off our reserves,” he said. <\/p>\n
“It’s a difficult task given its sheer quantity and how hard it is to reach.”<\/p>\n
The rust fungus survived the Yorkshire winter, YWT said, and in spring it “naturally reinfected” this year’s Himalayan balsam seedlings.<\/p>\n
Mr Baxendale said it was “a truly exciting and game-changing opportunity for managing this highly invasive and destructive species”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rust fungus was released in summer 2024 in Hertfordshire by Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust and in West…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-276853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114884476224482762","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}